Supernatural Hunter in the Modern Era

A string of bad luck

A man with short messy black hair, and deep dark eyes was in his room having an intense headache. This was Kamizaki Niel a twenty-year-old and a recently turned university dropout. The reason for his headache and dropping out of his university all stem from one event, the death of his parents. 

It was just a few days ago when his parents died in a car accident. Niel was still, in the university dorms when he received the news. The shock of it all had nearly overwhelmed him almost making him faint. 

Even during his parents' wake he still could not grasp what had happened. There were only a few people that attended as his parents didn't really have relatives. Niel's father was an orphan who runs a small shop in Shibuya that incidentally was on the first floor of their house. The shop sells supposedly supernatural items from paper talismans to statues that ward off evil, of course, in Niel's mind they were just trinkets that would only attract weirdos. Then there was Niel's mother who was a half Filipino, she too worked in the stop by acting as a fortune teller.

She never told him anything about her family or her past, every time Niel tried to ask her about those things she wouldn't give him an answer. Still, she was a kind loving mother, who taught him a lot about her culture. 

After most of the guests had left, a group of men approached Niel. The overall vibe these men were giving Niel was not good. The leader of the group was a man with glasses wearing a very nice-looking suit. Seeing the man for the first time many would think that he fits the villain with glasses arch type to a T.

"Good evening Niel-kun. I'm sorry for your loss" 

"Thank you... May I ask what's your relationship with my parents?" 

"Oh, your parents and I are in a way business partners. I'm Minato Kenichi, here's my card." 

Kenichi handed out his business card, it was a shiny platinum card. Niel looked at it for a moment, and when he saw what was written on the business card he could already guess what was about to happen. The person in front of him was supposedly from a Financing Corporation but based on the rough looks of his companions Niel was sure that they weren't from a normal Financing Corporation. 

"So Kenichi-san how can I help you today?" 

"The truth is, I wanted to talk to you the day after your parents died, but I held myself back so that you have time to grieve. So now that you had a few days to calm your mind, I wanted to talk to you about your parents' debt." 

"Their debt?"

"Yes, you see a few years ago, your parents borrowed some money from me which they still haven't paid fully. So now that they're unfortunately dead, their entire debt has been inherited by you." 

It was just as Niel suspected. The debt should be related to how his parents were able to pay for his tuition fees. Even though his father's shop had done pretty well in recent years, it wasn't enough to be able to pay his way into university. 

"How much is the debt?"

"Here's the current sum."

Kenichi handed Niel a piece of paper. When Niel read the contract and saw the amount written on the paper he was astonished. 

"Is this for real? My parents' actually borrowed fifty million yen?!" 

"Oh no, that's not the amount they borrowed that's just what happens after adding the agreed-upon interest rates. The actual amount they borrowed was forty million yen. Around two years ago it had become fifty million, it was then that your parents began gradually paying me back so we're at twenty-five million now. It seems that business had been booming as of late or they were doing something else to get the money, either way, I guess if they had continued they would've been able to pay off the debt entirely. How unfortunate, that they to be part of an accident."

Kenichi sighed as he shook his head, on the other hand, Niel could not say a word as he felt his already crumbling world, crumbling even faster. 

"No need to look like that Niel-kun, I did like your parents unlike some of the other people who borrowed money from me. So tell you what, I'll stop adding the interest rate, and all you need to do is pay me the twenty-five million. Of course, I don't expect you to pay it all of it right now, so I guess I'll give you a year to pay me back. Aren't I generous?"

Kenichi showed a nice smile as he spoke but the words he said were anything but nice. Niel looked at the smiling man and gritted his teeth. 

"Kenichi-san I promised that I would pay off my parents' debt, but please can you extend the deadline." Niel did a dogeza after he spoke. 

"Oh a dogeza, I thought kids your age had already forgotten the traditional etiquette, but it seems I was wrong. Hmm, I do like you Niel-kun, alright, I'll extend that deadline of yours to two years. If you are ever in need of a referral to a job that gives high pay just give me a call." 

Kenichi stood up and looked at Niel who remained in a dogeza. He was about to leave with his men but then he stopped as he remembered something. 

"Oh right, I know that I don't need to tell you this, but just in case I'll say it anyway. You better not try and run away without paying me. Well, not like you could, even if you wanted to. I really hope you get to pay me properly before the deadline cause if you don't, well, let's just say it won't be a pleasant matter." 

...

Just remembering that day gave Niel a huge headache. If that wasn't bad enough just yesterday his girlfriend actually broke up with him through text. 

"Niel-san I'm truly sorry to say this after everything that happened to you, but I don't want to lie to you. I don't think our relationship is going to work out, so let's just end it. Please forget about me." 

When Niel received that message he tried numerous times to contact his ex, but she wouldn't pick up. He tried contacting their mutual friends in the university, but they too were not picking up. That was the moment Niel felt truly alone. 

...

Niel sat behind the desk of the shop looking at the items with a dazed look on his face. In there he saw his father talking to customers explaining the history and cultural significance of the items in the store, and in the corner of the store was where his mother did her fortune-telling. 

When Niel was younger he was always embarrassed to answer the question of what his parents did for a living. Due to this embarrassment, this and that happened and he later joined a bad group of people.

Despite going through that rebellious phase and always treating his parents like shit, his parents always smiled at him and never got angry.

It took quite some time for him to figure out that what his parents did was not embarrassing at all. That was when he wanted to change. He stopped hanging out with the bad crowd and started to study seriously. He got into a rather good university and was back on the right track, but now it seems like that wasn't meant to be. 

Niel sighed as he knew that he had no time to wallow in self-pity, he needed to make a decision on what to do next. 

Should he open the shop again? He was unsure if he could keep the shop going as he didn't have the same knowledge his dad had about these kinds of things. He was also unable to do the fortune-telling act his mother did. 

He then took out Kenichi's business card and wondered if he should call him. Kenichi did say that he knew some high-paying jobs that Niel could do, but the problem with that was that those jobs would most likely be on the illegal side of things. 

As he was thinking Niel's stomach started to growl. Niel knew that there was no more food in the fridge so he sighed. He took out some of the money in the cash register. For a moment Niel looked at the money in his hands. 

'What the heck am I even thinking about? I actually hesitated to use the money. If I die from starvation then what's the point of all this worrying about money? Damn it! Whatever, I'll just buy some food and then continue thinking about what to do next.'

...

Niel went out and headed to the nearby convenience store to buy a few cup ramen. When he got out of the convenience store he sighed as he not only bought a few cup ramen but also bought a pack of Seven Stars which was now in his hand. It has been a while since he last placed a cigarette in his mouth. Niel placed the pack of cigarettes into his pocket and started walking back home. 

Niel who was near the street were his shop/house was noticed that the street was rather empty, and the lights on the houses were turned off. Niel took out his phone and saw that it was just eight in the evening, he also noticed that for some reason he had no signal. 

'Is there a blackout?' 

As Niel continued walking through the street it suddenly became eerily quiet. The noise coming from the main street could no longer be heard. The only sound he could hear at this point was the sound of his own footsteps. Niel then started walking faster hoping to quickly arrive at his house. 

He did not understand if it was because of the empty streets or the quiet atmosphere but he felt the hair on his arms stood erect as if electricity was passing through his body. It was at that very moment at the corner of the street he saw a woman looking directly at him. Niel stopped walking as he stared at the woman in front of him.

The woman had long straight black hair that reached her knees and was wearing a clean white nightgown. Even looking at her from a distance Niel saw that she had a place face and was wearing a surgical mask. The woman started walking toward him, Niel looked at her hands and saw that she was holding scissors in her right hand. 

When Niel saw this he was reminded of an urban legend he heard when he was in high school. It was a legend of a woman who would ask you a question and depending on how you answered it would lead you to either your death or the disfigurement of your face.  

As the woman was getting closer and closer, Niel could hear the loud beating of his own heart. When the woman was only a few feet before him, Niel suddenly heard a sound that was like a phone notification, but it couldn't be his smartphone as it was on silent and there was no signal. Not to mention the sound felt like it rang directly in his head. In the next moment, he heard a robotic voice speaking directly into his mind. 

[Malevont Spirit near the host detected, System booting up]

[10%, 30%, 70%, 100%] 

[Congratulations host, the Supernatural Hunter System has been activated.]